There is also liability to mistake in regard to quickening, as well as in the other signs of pregnancy. Thus, hysterical persons in particular may feel motions in the bowels, or imagine that they feel them, which they suppose to be the motions of a living child. This is much more apt to occur with those who are very desirous to be pregnant. Other persons also, doubtless, who are not hysterical, may, from flatulency in the bowels, be led into errors in this matter.
In some cases it is probably impossible for the female actually to determine whether pregnancy exists. These cases, however, are exceptions to the rule. As a general thing, there is no difficulty in determining by, or after, the middle of the period, whether a woman is with child.
A manual examination, by a competent physician or midwife, is the most certain test. In ascertaining pregnancy after the middle of the period, there is some liability to error. Practitioners of great experience, as I have before remarked, have made errors in regard to this matter.
Seeing, then, how difficult it is to determine positively beforehand in any case whether pregnancy really exists, you will, I am confident, look charitably upon those who are suspected of this state, without a full and sufficient cause. “It is better that ninety-nine wicked persons should escape, than that one righteous one should be punished.”
LETTER VIII.
DURATION OF PREGNANCY.
Difficulties of Ascertaining it—Rules by which it is to be Known—At what Age can a Fetus Live?
The question relating to the duration of pregnancy is a difficult one. The general belief is, that the term lasts about nine calendar months. We hear spoken of “nine calendar months,” “ten lunar months,” “forty weeks,” or “two hundred and eighty days,” as indicating the length of this period.
It should be recollected, that there may be a material difference between nine calendar months and ten lunar months, as also between nine calendar months and forty weeks. Nine calendar months may fall short of forty weeks by from four to seven days. Thus, it may be two hundred and seventy-three days, two hundred and seventy-four, two hundred and seventy-five, or two hundred and seventy-six days, instead of two hundred and eighty days, or forty weeks.
What are the means by which the true duration of pregnancy, or an approximation thereto, may be established?
1. Cessation of the menses. This is by no means an infallible sign, as every one knows. The menstrual function, as we have already seen, often becomes obstructed from other causes than pregnancy. Conception may take place without the woman being regular. Thus, it may occur some months, even, after the menses have ceased from other causes. If, then, the reckoning should be made to commence at the time when cessation occurred, it would be found very fallacious in many cases. On the other hand, menstruation may occur one or more times after conception has taken place. So, also, it appears to be well established, that pregnancy may occur before menstruation ever appeared with the individual.